Michael Hoey is tied for the lead at the Rocco Forte Open in Verdura after posting a stunning first round of 10-under-par 61 in Sicily on Thursday.

The Northern Irishman, 38, carded 10 birdies, eight in his first 11 holes, to join Swede Sebastian Soderberg at the top of the leaderboard.

The pair lie one shot ahead of Zander Lombard of South Africa.

Hoey missed an eagle putt at the ninth and a birdie attempt at the 10th as he attempted to post a first sub-60 round.

Despite passing up those opportunities, his round of 61 was still the lowest of his career.

“I left it in the jaws, both putts, but I was nervous,” admitted Hoey, who has won five times on the European Tour but lost his card last year.

“It was hard to hit them past the hole but it’s nice to be nervous because I haven’t been nervous on a golf course for quite a while and it’s exciting to have such a good score.

“My best ever score by two shots, no bogeys, it doesn’t get much better.

“We’ve had two kids (since 2013) and it’s been tiring. I had to have sinus surgery done a couple of years ago. I haven’t been as healthy as I wanted to be, so hopefully now I can get going.”

Playing in just his 15th European Tour event after gaining his card via the qualifying school last year, Soderberg was also eight under par after 11 holes and admitted breaking the magical 60 barrier was very much on his mind.

“That’s all I thought about walking down the par-five 12th, it kind of helped keep me going,” Soderberg said.

“I didn’t feel like it stopped me, I definitely had a couple of putts the last seven holes that could have gone in, but overall it was a great round.”

Colin Montgomerie says success in the Senior Open Championship is his “number one target” after a long-term injury.

Montgomerie tore ligaments in his ankle in February, but is fit to compete at Royal Porthcawl from 27-30 July.

The Scot finished second behind Bernhard Langer at Porthcawl in the 2014 Senior Open and was also second in the 1995 Open at St Andrews.

“I would love to go one better,” he said. “It is right on my radar, the most important event on my calendar.”

Since turning 50 in June 2013, Montgomerie has claimed three Senior majors but the Senior Open remains infuriatingly elusive.

As well as his second place finish in Wales three years ago, he had an opportunity to win at Sunningdale in 2015 but had to settle for third behind American Marco Dawson.

“I went there with a very open mind,” said Montgomerie, referring to the 2014 Senior Open at Royal Porthcawl. “I was taken aback at how undulating it was for a links course and how good it was. I was very, very impressed.

“It is a very solid golf course and one you have to be extremely careful of. You can get the odd lucky bounce, but you can’t be lucky for four days.

“I enjoyed playing it. It was a course full of character and I put it in the same category as Turnberry and Royal Birkdale. Let’s also hope the weather plays its part again.”

Langer is joined by a host of major winners from the past 40 years in the field, including Tom Watson, Ian Woosnam, John Daly, Jose Maria Olazabal and Fred Couples.

Poulter’s injury problems caused him to drop out of the top 200 and ended a run of five consecutive Ryder Cup appearances, in which he won 14 points from 18 matches.

Having secured a medical exemption to play on the PGA Tour, he missed the cut in his first two events back and feared he had lost his card last month after failing to gain the requisite earnings in the allotted time frame.

However, the PGA Tour decided its rules “unintentionally made it more difficult” for injured players and Poulter was allowed to continue for the rest of this season.

At the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass – often referred to as the unofficial fifth major of the year – Poulter was in contention for a first PGA Tour victory since 2012, but finished three shots behind winner Kim Si-woo, the event’s youngest champion.

“It has been miserable, there’s no other way to explain it,” Poulter told BBC Sport.

“When you’re taking a break for several months, when your world ranking plummets, when you miss Ryder Cups, when you find yourself in a position chasing down to try and keep your tour card.

“It’s obviously been the toughest stretch of my career. We’re still working through some things to try and be 100% there. I think I’m at 75%.

“I can now plan a very long schedule and work out exactly what I’m doing.

“I’m going to have a nice summer with the kids in the UK. I think I’ll be playing a lot in the UK this summer.”

JB Holmes and Kyle Stanley will take a one-shot lead into the final round of the Players Championship at Sawgrass.

Holmes carded a 70 to reach nine under par at the end of a tough third round and fellow American Stanley shot a 72.

They lead South African Louis Oosthuizen by one, while South Korea’s Si Woo Kim is a further shot back.

Ian Poulter shot a steady 71 and is on six under alongside Emiliano Grillo, while Masters champion Sergio Garcia fired a superb 67 to reach five under.

Rory McIlroy is one under after a 71 and world number one Dustin Johnson is two over after a 74 which included five dropped shots in the last six holes.

Patient Poulter keeps it steady

Poulter is looking to capitalise on retaining his PGA Tour card after fellow professional Brian Gay alerted officials to a discrepancy in the points structure used for players competing on major medical extensions.

The Englishman, who only played 13 tournaments last season because of injury, birdied the second hole and from there on parred the rest to maintain his hopes of winning the title on Sunday.

Garcia had Augusta on his mind

Garcia carded a hat-trick of birdies from the 11th and an eagle on the par-five 16th to surge into contention.

A three-putt bogey on the 18th took some of the gloss off a superb round but the Spaniard is in a strong position.

Afterwards the 37-year-old revealed he brought his Masters Green Jacket with him to Sawgrass and admitted that thoughts of Augusta hampered his first two rounds.

“I felt rusty probably head-wise,” said the 2008 champion. “There were lots of thoughts going through my head, and the first day I was still thinking about the Masters.

“I was thinking, come on, you have to play well after winning the Masters, you have to, you have to, you have to, and I probably put too much pressure on myself.”

McIlroy struggles to make an impression

McIlroy, who will have an MRI scan on Monday after suffering a recurrence of the back problem which ruled him out for seven weeks earlier this season, could not find any consistency during his round.

The Northern Irishman made the ideal start with a birdie on the first, but the four-time major winner then bogeyed the fifth.

And although he did birdie the ninth for the third day running, birdies on the 16th and 17th were cancelled out by bogeys on the 14th and 18th.

Perez enjoys best round of the day

In-form American Pat Perez made the halfway cut on the mark of two over par but fired a 66 on Saturday, his lowest score in 43 rounds at Sawgrass, to climb more than 50 places up the leaderboard.

The world number 42, who was second in the Wells Fargo Championship last week, made four birdies to reach the turn in 32, before picking up three more shots despite the early blustery conditions.

A bogey on the 18th was the only blemish on Perez’s scorecard as the 42-year-old finished the day on four under.

“But I need more numbers in the 60s to catch guys like Louis at the top. Nothing really fazes him and there’s a lot of depth behind too.”

The big names struggle – again

Rory McIlroy had two birdies and one bogey as he again failed to produce his best, carding a one-under-par 71 to move to level par overall.

After his round, the Northern Irishman said he had been suffering with a back problem.

“I’m going to get an MRI scan on Monday after the tournament and I might have to rest for a week or two,” he told Sky Sports.

“As long as I get myself right for the US Open, that’s the most important thing.”

McIlroy’s struggles were mirrored by Masters champion Sergio Garcia and world number one Dustin Johnson, who both also finished one under par, two shots above the halfway cut.

England’s Justin Rose and Lee Westwood finished on one over, but their countryman Luke Donald did miss the cut, two bogeys and a double bogey between the sixth and eighth ultimately costing him as he ended on three over par.

Jordan Spieth was another high-profile casualty. The 2015 Masters and US Open champion missed the cut for a third year in a row after adding a 75 to the 72 he scored on Thursday, ending on four over par.

But it could have been worse…

India’s Anirban Lahiri came within a stroke of carding the highest score at the 18th hole in the tournament’s history.

The world number 84 hooked three balls into the water hazard that lines the left side of the par-four hole, running up a sextuple-bogey 10.

The 29-year-old, in his second full season on the PGA Tour, shot 75 to miss the cut with a six-over total of 150.

Earlier on Friday, 2016 Masters champion Danny Willett pulled out midway through his second round because of a back injury, saying his “body and mind need a rest”.

The BMW PGA Championship takes place in Wentworth from 25 May, and asked if he would be fit to play, Willett replied: “Hopefully, touch wood.

“We’ll see how things go. I’ve already limited the schedule down a lot. Hopefully, all going well, we get back on. We have a week to do some work and see how it feels.”

Analysis

BBC Sport golf correspondent Iain Carter

It has been a curious Players Championship, with none of the world’s leading players fully getting to grips with a testing Sawgrass.

The 66s of Louis Oosthuizen and Kyle Stanley were exceptional rounds on a hot, breezy afternoon when the course became firmer and the water grabbed balls galore at the treacherous 17th.

Rory McIlroy made it to the weekend but it will be results of a different sort on Monday that will be more significant.

He faces an anxious wait for an MRI scan to identify the extent of his latest back injury. If rest is prescribed it may put in jeopardy his place in Wentworth’s BMW PGA Championship at the end of the month.